The Colorful Alleys of Namdaemun Market in Seoul

This is the largest traditional market in the city. It is located near the South Gate of the city, also called Namdaemun. There are hundreds of shops and stalls that fill the streets and alleys with thousand of colors.

We enjoyed a whole afternoon walking down the alleys and buying in the busiest market in the city. Most of the retailers keep their stores open everyday but Sunday. You can get here walking from City Hall or Seoul Metropolitan Station. If you go by subway, you have to get off at Hoehyeon Station.

There are different areas where you can find a lot of different goods like clothes, accessories, toys, watches, kitchenware, food, flowers, carpets, and all kinds of local and imported products. There are many shops that have their own factories within the buildings and make their products. But the really colorful appearance of the market is because of the street vendors in the alleys between buildings.

My favorite stalls are the food ones. I think they are the most colorful in the whole market.

We bought souvenirs here because they were cheaper than in Insadong Street. We chose to buy metal chopsticks for our friends, because we found them very curious and characteristic of the country. Korean people use metal chopsticks that are heavier and more difficult to use than wooded chopsticks. It is said that metal chopsticks were first used because the King was concerned with assassination. He started to use chopsticks made of silver because it tarnished on contact with any poison in his food. After this, the metal chopsticks are continued to be used by Koreans in an attempt to emulate royalty. As silver is rather expensive, common chopsticks are made of stainless steel.

2 Likes

No Comments

More Interesting Articles

Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany. With its 3.5 million residents, it is also the second largest city in the European Union. Berlin has a lot to offer when it comes to culture as there are so many people from many different countries living and working together. Of course, Berlin is also home of Lomography Germany!

Cagliari is the capital of the region of Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. With my trusty Lomo LC-A+ RL, I'll show you in this article the most characteristic part of this city known as The Castle, with its narrow streets and a very interesting museum with unique archaeological pieces in the world!

From October 16 to 19, the Signal Festival took place in Prague once again. This festival is a huge outdoor exhibition of light installations in public spaces within the city of Prague, which lures thousands of people to the streets.

Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria. It has been mentioned in a myriad of pop culture references in books, music, and film, and is also the home of the Lomography headquarters. The history of Vienna stretches back to a far 500 BC, which is why it’s no surprise that the city is steeped in rich, unique, and fascinating culture and history that has inspired artists of all generations.

Seoul, South Korea is among the most progressive cities today, famous for its innovations in various fields and being hailed as the most connected city in the world. But have you ever wondered how certain places looked like decades ago? Have a look at Korean photographer Sungseok Ahn's fascinating series after the jump!

In this article, I'll show you the usual route I take whenever I walk through the streets of Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, this time in preparation for making a puppet called Mr. Golden. Sham Shui Po is famous for its stores selling fabrics and other clothing supplies, as well as electronic accessories. It is also full of different places to explore.

This psychedelic display of colors is calling us to pack our bags and move into this magical rainbow city! Is the pot of gold here, too? Kidding! Congratulations alcastan for having our Photo of the Day!

If you are in search of a lesser known European city full of nice examples of art and architecture, I would recommend that you visit Palermo, the capital of the region of Sicily in the South of Italy. This city is rich with wonderful churches, squares, fountains, and other important monuments and buildings! Take a look after the jump!

There is a weekend in New York where the city streets look like an alternate universe, full of fantastic characters and people who seem to have walked out of a comic book or a movie. This weekend is the NY Comic Con weekend and people from everywhere come to one of the biggest comic convention to be part of one of the biggest Cosplay competitions.

Stop bath is a type of chemical used in the darkroom for processing black and white film, aptly named as such because it halts the development of the images. In this case, stop bath is also part of the title that Korean analogue street photographer <b><a href="http://instagram.com/sooeatsyourstreetforbreakfast">Soomin Yim</a></b> has given her body of work, "Stop Bath the City," to represent the forgotten faces of people in the city amid rapid modernization, captured and immortalized on black and white film.

On Thursday, May 1st, all the shops in the Carnaby Street area will open its doors late for a big shopping extravaganza organized by Grazia Magazine. Lomography Soho is just off of Carnaby Street and we will be joining the celebrations with a 20% discount on products and a special La Sardina workshop. Find out more after the jump.